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GISF Research Paper 001 Assessing the Environmental, Social, and Economic Impacts of Wildfire Douglas C. Morton, Megan E. Roessing, Ann E. Camp, and Mary L. Tyrrell Forest Health Initiative Yale University Global Institute of School of Forestry & Environmental Studies Sustainable Forestry Global Institute of Sustainable Forestry Assessing the Environmental, Social, and Economic Impacts of Wildfire Douglas C. Morton, Megan E. Roessing, Ann E. Camp, and Mary L. Tyrrell May 2003 GISF Research Paper 001 Forest Health Initiative Yale University School of Forestry and Environmental Studies Global Institute of Sustainable Forestry 360 Prospect Street, New Haven, Connecticut 06511 USA www.yale.edu/gisf This project was supported by a grant from the American Forest & Paper Association ii Assessing the Environmental, Social, and Economic Impacts of Wildfire Acknowledgements This project was made possible through generous support from the American Forest and Paper Association and the Global Institute of Sustainable Forestry at the Yale School of Forestry and Environmental Studies. We would like to acknowledge the following students at the Yale School of Forestry and Environmental Studies for their major contribution to the research on specific fires: Kate Hammond on the Cerro Grande fire; Laura Ruiz on the Star fire; Andrew Niccolai on the Hayman fire; and Kimberlee Mortimer on the Carlton 01 fire. We would like to thank Mary Coulombe for insighful advice on the project and report; Sheila Olmstead for reviewing and providing thoughtful comments on the draft report; and Page Bertelsen and Dave Hobson for logistical and technical support. In addition, we would especially like to thank our contacts at the numerous federal, state, tribal, and nonprofit agencies that provided information for this report; without their efforts and attention to detail, this research would not have been possible. Yale University’s Global Institute of Sustainable Forestry iii Table of Contents Introduction ............................................................................................................. iv Executive Summary ................................................................................................. 1 National and State Data ........................................................................................... 7 Case Studies ............................................................................................................ 14 Cerro Grande: New Mexico, 2000 ............................................................................ 17 Canyon Ferry Complex: Montana, 2000 ................................................................... 20 Shenandoah: Virginia, 2000 ..................................................................................... 23 Carlton: Florida, 2001 .............................................................................................. 25 Star: California, 2001 ............................................................................................... 27 Double Trouble: New Jersey, 2002 ........................................................................... 29 Hayman: Colorado, 2002 ......................................................................................... 31 Rodeo-Chediski: Arizona, 2002 ................................................................................ 35 Battle Creek: South Dakota, 2002 ............................................................................ 39 Biscuit: Oregon and California, 2002 ...................................................................... 42 Case Study Summary ............................................................................................... 45 Conclusions and Recommendations ........................................................................ 54 iv Assessing the Environmental, Social, and Economic Impacts of Wildfire Introduction Environmental, economic and social impacts from wildfires in the United States have been steadily increasing over the past decade, culminating with several large and costly fires in 2000, 2001 and 2002. These fires not only consumed forest and rangeland vegetation, but also adversely impacted wildlife habitat, recreation and tourism, water quality and supply, and property values, all of which depend on a forested landscape. Although federal and state agencies keep records of the total acres burned, structures destroyed, and fire suppression costs, data on indirect and continuing impacts of wildfire are rarely calculated. However, these impacts, such as restoration costs, alteration of wildlife habitat, lost tourism revenue, or human health effects, are important components of risk assessment and wildfire management. In collaboration with the American Forest & Paper Association, the Global Institute of Sustainable Forestry at the Yale School of Forestry & Environmental Studies has collected and summarized available national and state-level data for a variety of wildfire impacts from the past three years. This report also contains summaries of 10 recent fires which provide data on the types of information collected for individual fires and the magnitude of wildfire impacts when they occur. We specifically selected large wildfires at the wildland/urban interface for case studies because we expected these fires to have a diverse range of substantial impacts. As a result, the case study fires are not representative of typical or “average” wildfires, since most fires occur away from the wildland/urban interface or are smaller than the fires in this report. Nevertheless, the nature and availability of wildfire impact information from these individual fires provides a foundation for understanding the nature and extent of impacts from wildland/urban interface fires and incorporation of this information into wildfire policies, risk assessments, and management practices. Our objective in undertaking this study was to provide foundational information for a dialogue on what data are needed to inform policy makers and improve assessments of the risks and benefits of wildfire management. We are aware that other studies delve more deeply into specific aspects of forest management, fire management, and restoration of fire-damaged ecosystems. It is not within the scope of this report to include a summary of current studies, nor to review the extensive literature on the subject of wildfire impacts. Instead, this report provides the context for other work by documenting the current availability of information on wildfire impacts and providing examples of specific impacts for 10 large wildfires. Understanding the nature and extent of available data is the first step towards informed decision making regarding wildfire policy and risk assessment. Yale University’s Global Institute of Sustainable Forestry 1 Executive Summary Wildfires create a myriad of environmental, social, and economic impacts. Knowledge of both short and long-term impacts of wildfire is essential for effective risk assessment, policy formulation, and wildfire management. The goal of this report is to assess the availability of information on a range of wildfire impacts from federal, state, and local sources and to characterize the nature of these impacts when they occur. We have found that data are summarized at the national and state levels for only a few categories (number of fires, acres burned, structures burned, and suppression cost), providing policy makers with an incomplete picture of the total impacts from wildfires. For individual large wildfires, our research has shown that information is available for a broad range of environmental, social, and economic impacts, well beyond what is summarized at the national or state levels. These indirect and continuing wildfire impacts can be substantial, particularly for large wildfires at the wildland/urban interface. Therefore, we suggest that more thorough data collection on the broad array of wildfire impacts, summarized at state and national levels, would provide policy makers with a more comprehensive understanding of wildfire impacts and ultimately serve to enhance current state and national risk assessment methods and wildfire management. In this report, we summarize the availability and Wildfire Impacts nature of wildfire impact information from eight federal Total acres burned agencies involved in fire management, three states, and Cost of fire suppression Damage to homes and structures ten individual fires from the last three wildfire seasons Alteration of wildlife habitat (Figure 1). Research on data availability was conducted via Damage to watersheds and water supply a thorough review of information posted on the internet and Damage to public recreation facilities detailed phone interviews with key personnel at federal, Evacuation of adjacent communities Tourism impacts state, tribal, and local agencies. We focused on thirteen Damage to timber resources categories of environmental, social, and economic wildfire Destruction of cultural and archaeological sites impacts (Table 1). Below, we highlight the findings from our Costs of rehabilitation and restoration Public health impacts research on wildfire impact data at federal, state, and case Transportation Impacts study levels. Table 1. Wildfire impact categories considered in this report Figure 1. Map of wildfire impact data collection priorities for this report. California, Colorado, and Florida (in gray) and 10 case study fires from 2000 to 2002 were researched in detail 2 Assessing the Environmental,